I’ve been writing a series on how technology might help us resist tyranny — but today I want to take a little detour and talk about something more personal.
Elon Musk recently said, “The fundamental weakness of Western civilization is empathy.” Thinking that empathy is a sign of weakness is practically the textbook definition of a psychopath.
Some people cheer this on. The book Against Empathy, which is very popular in silicon valley, argues that feelings get in the way of rational decisions — that compassion should be “calculated.”